Series 2: Episode 5 (Life on Mars)
The fifth episode of the second series of the British time travel police procedural television series, Life on Mars, was first broadcast on 20 March 2007. The episode, known erroneously as "The Kidnapping", was produced by Kudos Film & Television for BBC One. Synopsis The team investigates the abduction of a young woman and her daughter, who are being held prisoner by somebody who wishes the team to release a prisoner arrested on a murder charge a year ago. At the same time, Sam faces a life or death situation in 2006 when he thinks he has accidentally been given an overdose. As the deadline draws closer, Sam collapses into a deeper coma, leaving his colleagues to tackle the mystery on their own. Plot Sam lies ill in bed, suffering from apparent hallucinations that cause a surreal episode of cartoon Camberwick Green on his television - but featuring plasticine versions of himself and Gene Hunt as the main characters. He then receives a call from Chris at the police station asking if he can return to work to help investigate a couple of kidnappings. Sam looks up and sees Chris now appearing on his television as he participates in the conversation. Still delusional, Sam runs to work and is bombarded with imagery that suggests he has suffered an apparent overdose in hospital back in the present day world. Arriving at the station, Sam witnesses a distraught man called Simon Lamb threatening to hang himself unless a convicted murderer named Graham Bathurst is released from prison. For Lamb, soon freed from his noose, has had his wife and daughter abducted with the kidnappers threatening to kill them by the afternoon if their demand is not undertaken. Bathurst had been found guilty of murdering a teenage girl called Charlie Witham, with Lamb claiming to have vaguely known both. Sam struggles at work, constantly sweating, but demands that Gene talk him through the previous investigations that led to youngster Bathurst’s conviction. It becomes clear that Gene was very heavy-handed and desperate to find someone to blame for the murder. He coerced Bathurst into confessing by making threats about longer prison sentences unless he complies. Chris then speaks to Sam about his own part of the investigation, including the initial discovery that Bathurst was seeing Charlie. During a visit to the dead teenagers school, he was told about their relationship by Stella Lamb - the girl being held by the kidnappers. Sam thinks this is the reason why the Lamb family has been targeted. The coppers pay a visit to Graham’s mother and find his brother Mitch hiding away. Gene believes that he must be behind the kidnapping but Sam maintains that his only crime is being Absent With Out Leave from the Navy. At the police’s behest, Simon Lamb launches a radio appeal to the kidnappers, which prompts a distressed phone call from captive daughter Stella. In a bid to ensure the release of Bathurst, Lamb tries to confess to killing Charlie but his hysteria is ignored. Annie starts to believe that there were major flaws in the murder investigation and a lack of focus on the details. Ray refutes this, explaining how the forensic evidence of an oily rag he found meant that they had caught the right man. Sam learns, via a phone call from the present day, that he will temporarily slip into a deeper state of coma due to new medication to fight the overdose. Moments later the lights in the office fade to black suddenly. Sam awakens on a couch in a darkened room and sees his police colleagues on the television discussing the case. Gene is suggesting they search Lamb’s bins in case the kidnappers had sent him an earlier warning that he didn’t pick up. He also says that Sam is still out cold. Sam keeps watching on the television, with the action flitting from Lamb’s house - where the male coppers are investigating - to Annie’s work back at the station. Chris finds a photo at the house where it appears that Stella has been cropped out of a photo with Simon Lamb and his wife. Annie finds a letter of complaint from Charlie’s mother about the police’s handling of the case and pays her a visit. It transpires that her husband Don wrote the letter, believing that there would be more impact if it came from the mother. She then says that Don felt the recent kidnappings were ‘natural justice’, which alerts Annie’s suspicions, as does the fact that he’s a photographer and an expert in manipulating images. Annie visits Don’s shed and finds the two kidnapped women. The photographer then turns up and tells her that it was Simon Lamb that killed his daughter. As the policewoman tries to escape, Don threatens her with a gardening implement. Gene and the others then turn up at the house in the nick of time and apprehend the culprit. Sam wakes up to be comforted by Annie and tells her how good he feels. After a hug, he asks her out to a Roxy Music concert. She teasingly says she’ll think about it… Chatting with Gene, Sam randomly finds out that the oil from the rag was tung oil, a substance used by Simon Lamb on the night of Charlie’s murder. They head over to pay him a visit… Cast *Sam Tyler — John Simm *Gene Hunt — Philip Glenister *Chris Skelton — Marshall Lancaster *Ray Carling — Dean Andrews *Annie Cartwright — Liz White *Nelson — Tony Marshall *Phyllis Dobbs — Noreen Kershaw *Test Card Girl — Rafaella Hutchinson *Simon Lamb — Reece Dinsdale *Stella Lamb — Hayley McGroarty *Mitch Bathurst — James Peter Wells *Graham Bathurst — Adam Beresford *Mavis Witham — Olwen May *Don Witham — Jonty Stephens Cultural references *The opening sequence starts with the line: "This is a box, a magical box…" In the original Camberwick Green, the opening poem goes: "This is a box, a musical box. Wound up and ready to play. But this box can hide a secret inside. I wonder who's in it today?" *Gene says "Theft and fencing – and I don't mean the sort that Steed does in The Avengers." The Avengers was a fantastical spy series whose hero, John Steed, was something of a dab hand at fencing – both with an épée and with his trusty umbrella. *Ray says "I reckon the Munich games will be one for the history books." Carling was not wrong – but not because of the games, rather because the Black September terrorist group kidnapped and murdered the Israeli team and officials and German police. *Gene says "Well done, Van der Valk!" Van der Valk was a detective drama series based on the novels by Nicolas Freeling. The series was set in Amsterdam, and the hero was a Dutch policeman – although all the parts were played by Brits and the Ford Granada still featured strongly! *Gene says "I've come at this from more angles than Linda Lovelace!" Linda Lovelace was the star of infamous 1972 porn film Deep Throat. Production Music *You Shouldn't Do That - Hawkwind *Just Like You - Roxy Music *10538 Overture - ELO Category:Life on Mars (UK) episodes